Speech #980246353

I am pleased to have been the author of both this section of this bill and improvements in section 416 adopted by Congress and signed into law by the President on April 10. Be7 cause of the availability of the U.S. Governmentowned dried milk and wheat and the improvements in section 416 there is no reason to prevent the use of these food supplies promptly and continuously by these Guatemalan refugees in Mexico. Indeed Congress by this action has sought to be of assistance to our neighbors to the south in the humanitarian effort of the Mexican Government in so generously offering a haven and help to Guatemalans who have fled their country to escape the oppression of the Guatemalan army. This is generous on the part of Mexico. Most of the refugees are Mayan Indians from the mountains of Guatemala which have been harassed. killed. and otherwise oppressed by their own Governments army. Although the High Commission on Refugees of the United Nations is providing food and many of the expenses of the refugees. there have been valid reports of the need for milk for them. Although corn meal is the basic food stuffs of the refugees. supplying wheat flour and the ovens and the instructions of how to use these foods would fulfill some of the nourishment needs of the refugees. Section 416 now provides that some of the dried milk and wheat can be sold on the local market of the country receiving the donated food which provides for the cost of processing. transportation. and equipment such as ovens as well as other expenses incurred in the distribution and use of the food. I believe this is all essential in the case of these refugees which total 50 to 60.000 in camps plus many other thousands that live out of camps but with the populous of Mexico. Neither Secretary George Schultz nor the Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Refugees in New York City believe there is any need for additional food. I respectfully disagree. I have twice discussed with Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of the Diocese of San Cristobol Delas Casas in the state of Chiapas. Mexico. in which most of the refugee camps are located. the question of the condition of the refugees. He believes that more dried milk in particular is needed for the children and that if some means of instruction and ovens were supplied all of the refugees would be benefited with wheat flour. I find it cliscouraging that those far removed in our State Department here in Washington or in New York Citys Office of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees find no need for food for what I believe to be a hungry group of refugees. I hope that through the passage of this bill we can jar the attention. the interest. and concern and perhaps the conscience of this administration to ascertain the facts of the need for more adequate nutrition for these refugees as well as millions of other hungry people throughout the world.